


Mummy Charity

by chlolou1208



Category: Charity and Johnny, Emmerdale, vanity - Fandom
Genre: Emmerdale - Freeform, F/F, Johnnybobs, MummyCharity, Vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23451559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chlolou1208/pseuds/chlolou1208
Summary: Basically just a bit of Johnny and Charity bonding :) and also an idea of what could happen based off of the preview pics of when Kerry is with Vanessa at the hospital
Relationships: Charity Dingle/Johnny Woodfield, Charity Dingle/Vanessa Woodfield
Kudos: 80





	Mummy Charity

Charity finds herself waking up on the sofa, her back in knots and her elbow tingling with pins and needles from where she’d been leaning her head on it to replace a pillow.

She’d slept downstairs, yet again, after another argument with Vanessa. Charity had turned up at the chemotherapy unit to find Kerry Wyatt, _murder Kerry Wyatt_ she thinks, sat with her ugly flowered yellow jumper reading a magazine on a blue chair next to her sick fiancé. She’d had to do a double take when she walked in, a half hour later than the 3pm appointment but that’s because she’d been taking care of Moses, like Vanessa had said for her to do. She’d decided that dropping him off with Chas couldn’t hurt, she knew Bob was managing the bar after taking on more shifts and Chas would have Eve anyway. _Vanessa’s the priority right now_ , she’d thought, waving to Moses because hopping in her car and driving at a faster speed than normal to the hospital.

Turns out her idea to surprise her fiancé with a box of chocolate truffles and a crossword puzzle for them to do had been the _worst_ idea she’d ever had, or it seemed that way after Vanessa’s reaction.

_“Charity? What you doing here? I thought you were taking care of Moses”_

_“He’s with Chas, his temperatures gone down…what’s she doing her more like?” Charity had said, almost spitting out the ‘she’ as she glared across at Kerry, who seemed very comfortable to be sat next to the daughter of a man she’d practically murderer._

_“I don’t wanna cause any trouble-“ Kerry said, closing her magazine._

_“Well, off you pop then” Charity nodded her head to the door._

_Vanessa shook her head and watched as Kerry scrambled to gather her belongings, she left the chemotherapy room with one look back at them both, bowing her head as Charity’s eyes fired daggers._

_“You really didn’t have to come, I’d have been fine on my own”_

_“But you weren’t on your own babe were ya?” Charity huffed as she sat down, cringing at the warmth left on the seat from where Kerry had been sat._

_“Look Kerry just wanted to keep me company, I couldn’t exactly shove her out of the door” Vanessa said with a from, her hands clenching the mug in her hand, the tea was way too dark for Vanessa’s liking, Charity thought. Kerry must have made it, Charity almost looked for the traces of blood on the handle left over from grubby hands, the ones that caused a fire and a mans death. Vanessa’s dads death._

_“You could have told her where to shove it!” Charity said, loudly, which made a few of the other patients look over at them._

_“Charity“ Vanessa hushed, “_ _just leave it, don’t cause a scene”_ _, her words got harsher and eyes pierced. She took another sip of her tea, trying not to grimace._

_Charity noticed her face and despite herself stood up and walked over to fetch the milk, pouring a slight trickle in the liquid in the mug_ _._

_“I just don’t get it”_

_“Get what?” Vanessa responded._

_“How you can let Kerry be here for you but not your own fiancé, I mean… do you know how I felt when I walked in here thinking you were on your own and then she’s sat there… the murderer of your dad!”_

_Vanessa scoffed shaking her head. “ oh yes it’s all about you isn’t it”_

_Charity interrupted, her voice raising above Vanessa’s, “I’m not making it about me-“_

_Vanessa continued, also raising her own voice. “I was scared being on my own, she distracted me to my mind off it, but don’t for one second think I forgot what she did… in fact if I wasn’t attached to these wires I’d have swung for her as soon as she sat down”_

_Vanessa sighed loudly. “Anyway if you’d have actually been here like you promised me you would have then I wouldn’t have had to be getting comfort from Kerry bloody Wyatt!” Her voice broke as she said her name, as if saying her name out loud made her sick._

_Vanessa’s heart thudded, the silence between them overwhelming, as soon as she’d said it she wanted to apologise, take it back because she really didn’t mean it. After all, she’d been the one to insist Charity should stay at home and look after ill Moses, too scared and proud to admit that she really needed her there, especially on her first chemo session._

  
Charity had walked out of the room then, hands shaking and heart racing. She knew she was useless, that she should have been here with Vanessa, but she really didn’t need it confirming by the smaller blonde herself. She paced around on the floor outside the room, she wished for a drink, something stronger than hospital tea and coffee. A tear escaped her eye and Charity stubbornly wipes her eyes with her sleeve, that roughly it might have left a red mark. She didn’t leave though, she returned to sit by Vanessa’s side and then walked her to Charity’s car after the session, her arm wrapped around her waist.

They hadn’t talked properly since then, had just mumbled small talk to each other so that the atmosphere wasn’t too tense for the kids, especially the older two who picked up on their arguments no matter how small.

***

Vanessa wasn’t up yet, it was a Saturday so the kids weren’t either, it was only 8am after all. She knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep though, not on that rock hard sofa, so she popped the kettle on and put some bread in the toaster.

She turned around when she heard the patter of small feet, slowly walking down the stairs.

“Hey Johnnybobs, you alright babe?” She said in a hushed tone, not wanting to wake the full house up just yet.

Johnny nods and stretches his arms up at her. Knowing exactly what he wants, she leans down and picks him up, plopping him to sit on the counter.

“I’m hungry” Johnny says, his little tongue swiping at the edges of his mouth, as if to illustrate his hunger.

Charity reaches up to the top cupboard, “right, you fancying coco pops or…Cheerios?”.

He chooses the latter, there’s no point in asking to be honest, she thinks. He chooses them every time, he likes sticking his tongue through the little holes in them and laughing as he shows everyone around the table.

She lifts him down from the counter and they eat their breakfasts on the sofa, warning him not to spill it beforehand.

“Mummy Charity are we s’posed to eat it here, mummy say’s we not allowed cus it’s messy” Johnny says, his eyes big as he looks up for her, spoon and bowl in hand.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine just this once, it’ll be our secret deal?” She teases, holding her pinky out. Johnny takes it and eats his cereal.

***

“Has yours got a…big nose?”

They’re playing ‘guess who’, Johnny’s favourite game. He likes flipping down the faces on the blue plastic board.

Charity laughs and pretends to consider the question, her thumb and finger rubbing her chin. “Hmmm…nope, but it’s deffo bigger than yours and mine” she taps his nose and he giggles.

If it wasn’t for the laughing and the noise of the cartoons on the tv, they’d have heard Vanessa walking downstairs. She stops and watches her son, how he’s so carefree and happy with Charity. She makes him laugh like no one else, Vanessa thinks to herself as she rests her hand on the railing.

“I think I know yours!” He claps his hands together as there is only one face left on his board. She dramatically rolls her eyes and sighs.

“You win again, that’s the third time now!”

Vanessa smiles, Charity is probably letting him win which makes her heart warm even more.

“I like it when you play mummy, auntie Tracy sometimes tries to play but she kept droppin’ all the flaps down wrong” Johnny says.

“That’s cos auntie Tracy isn’t as clever, not like mummy Charity” Her wife smiles smugly and holds her thumbs up, pointing to her self.

“But I love auntie Trace still, she’s just silly” Johnny giggles, swinging his little legs that are way off the floor.

Charity smiles and takes a sip of the drink she’d make herself, it’d gone cold now though after having caught up in their game.

“I love you too mummy” Johnny says, his eyes fixed on the tv and his hands flipping the flaps up and down on the ‘guess who’ board he’s still holding.

Charity’s heart flutters, she feels tears forming in her eyes and she kisses his head. “I bloody love you an all kidda”

Vanessa sniffles on the stairs, she tries to play it off as a yawn but when Charity turns round she dips her head and walks to the kitchen. “Morning” She hears charity say from the sofa, standing up and hovering by the counter.

“Morning” Vanessa says, hands preparing a brew. “Want one?” She asks. Charity nods and pours her other cold one down the sink. She leaves Johnny watching tv and uses her hands to gently twist Vanessa into facing her.

“I’m sorry-“

Both blondes speak at the same time and scoff a laugh when there eyes meet.

Vanessa speaks first, her finger going up to rest on charity’s lips, “I didn’t mean what I said in the hospital, I was angry but not at you, not really…I’m so frustrated with all this hospital talk, chemo, injections…feeling like I wanna run a marathon one minute and then almost collapsing at the knees the next…” Charity holds both her hand as she lets Vanessa continue.   
  


“I was scared to tell you that I desperately wanted, needed you there. And before you say it-I know I don’t need to feel scared to tell you stuff, but I do because it’s just the person I am, always the one trying to hold everyone else up even when I’m down myself” 

Charity caresses her thumbs along Vanessa’s soft hands. They’ve always been surprisingly soft for a vet. 

“You are right, you don’t need to be scared to tell me stuff, and you have always been the one propping everyone else up but it’s my turn now, so stop being greedy and let me have it” Charity says, Vanessa laughs at her joke, always one to use humour to lighten the mood, and Vanessa’s so grateful for it, she really is. 

“I’m tired, I just wish this wasn’t happening, I took my frustrations out on you and that wasn’t fair…” Vanessa sighs.

“No, it wasn’t…” Charity says. “But I wasn’t fair either, having a go at you while you were having all sorts of medication or whatever pumped into ya-I mean what sort of a person does that…”

Vanessa shakes her head, “the sort of person who knows me, you knew all that we went through with Kerry and Amy and my dad, of course I didn’t want her there, but she was a distraction. probably was in my head. On any other day I’d have cheered you on, I probably was in my head I just-I didn’t wanna deal with her…or an argument, I was in pain and I lashed out at you because of it”

Charity shrugs. “I meant what I said, friend, nurse…punchbag”

Vanessa tilts her head and frowns. “I’m sorry”

Charity smiles. “I know”

Vanessa kisses her on the lips, feeling Charity sigh contently into it. “I love you, I really do, I know I don’t tell you enough and by the way I’ve acted recently-“

Charity rested her hands on the side of Vanessa’s cheeks, her thumb caressing her cheekbones that she notices are more prominent now a days.

“Babe, you’ve got bowel cancer..” she stresses the two words, as if the two words are harder and heavier to say than the others, as if they are in capital letters. “I think that gives you a free pass…for now” Charity says, her lips turned up at the edges.


End file.
